Do you get tired of older people being labelled as “takers” not givers? It’s particularly annoying at a time when we’ve seen some inspirational older people carrying the Olympic Flame, for example a campaigner for accessible transport or the lady who took the Flame to Downing Street
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Posted in Age UK London Blog
Tagged caring, contribution, employment, influencing, london, Older people, Olympics, volunteering
Older peoples, families and local authorities around the country are looking for leadership and certainty in the question of funding adult social care.
Every year the question of funding adult social care becomes more pressing, as pressures on budgets become tighter. The sooner a framework for funding and a timeframe for implementation are agreed, the sooner families and local authorities can plan for the future. Doing nothing is not an option.
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Posted in Age UK London Blog
Tagged budgets, care, commissioning, Dilnot, elderly, funding, Government, local authorities, social care
Today’s report about the pressures on unpaid carers presents yet again the huge pressures on carers to underpin the social care system in this country. Unpaid carers need support; they need respite and they need recognition of their own health needs. Often in the day-to-day management of life of the person they care for, their own care needs get overlooked. Without unpaid carers’ huge contribution to supporting our most vulnerable people in society, the social care system could not cope. We need to ensure that carers are supported as they are the backbone of our social care system.
Paid carers can also be vulnerable, with unpaid travel time between clients, low pay and little recognition. Yet these people work with some of the most frail and vulnerable people in society. Often time to care is minimal and the costs of care are tightly controlled so that only the basics are provided. For some older people, their carers may be some of the only outside contact they have with life outside of their homes, yet time for care is rationed.
Everyone recognises times are tough, budgets are small, every penny is squeezed, but isn’t the lack of recognition for both paid carers and unpaid carers shortsighted? Recognition in the short term will mean a better and less crisis-ridden care system in the long term. Giving our carers the time they need to care and to continue caring must be a priority.
Recommend on Facebook Tweet about it Print for later Tell a friendI have been thinking recently that I would find it hard to imagine a world where the internet didn’t exist. At the very least, how would I book my holidays and theatre tickets and take advantage of those special deals on a well-known book site? So it’s really interesting to be evaluating Age UK London’s digital inclusion project, ‘MiCommunity’, because many of the older people in London who have signed up for the project have never even turned on a computer.
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Posted in Age UK London Blog
Tagged barriers, digital, intergenerational, Internet, learning, MiCommunity, Older people, shopping, younger people
Three months today, on 3 May 2012, up to two million Londoners aged 50+ will cast their votes in the Mayor of London and London Assembly elections. We know that older people are more likely to vote in elections than other age groups. The Mayor plays a key role in running London and many of his/her areas of responsibility can have a direct effect on older people’s lives and wellbeing.
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Posted in Age UK London Blog
Tagged Age UK London, elections, Greater London Forum for Older People, london, London Assembly, Mayor of London, Older people, Older People's Manifesto, stereotyping
It’s time to say “No” to any more cuts to older people’s social care services. Local authorities need to make spending cuts from somewhere, but maintaining frontline older people’s services needs to be a priority in 2012-13. There is no slack in the system, many older people already get pooor quality care services and any further cuts could harm vulnerable older people.
That’s what Age UK London and Greater London Forum for Older People have found anyway. We have just launched our research report, ‘Don’t cut care in London’, looking at the impact of the cuts so far and the possible impact in the future. You can download our report from www.ageuk.org.uk/london
Recommend on Facebook Tweet about it Print for later Tell a friendThe EHRC has published a shocking report highlighting yet another area of neglect and cuts in levels of service. This time it’s homecare, and reliable reports of people being left in wet and soiled beds for hours on end, waiting for a care worker to arrive and help them – often with just 15 minutes allocated for the work.
The temptation is to blame the care worker, who is surely recruited, trained and paid to ”care” . I have commented, raised concerns, blogged and generally got on my soap box about these issues many times. There are several pertinent points to make:
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Posted in Age UK London Blog
Tagged care, care providers, care workers, carers, CQC, EHRC, homecare, local authorities, personalised care
According to the BBC News, winter weather alerts aimed at helping vulnerable people during cold snaps are to be introduced in England:
“Under the new arrangements, the Met will issue alerts depending on the severity of the conditions. In total, there will be four alerts, each of which will ask local agencies, including NHS trusts and councils, to carry out certain duties. For example, at level three, which would have been reached last winter, health and social care staff should consider daily visits to the most vulnerable.”
Can someone tell me please, where the people and money are going to come from for daily visits to the most vulnerable?
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Posted in Age UK London Blog
Tagged cold, eligibility criteria, funding cuts, local authorities, Older people, vulnerable, winter
I read with enormous concern the front page media headline last week talking about ‘Older Slackers’. I wonder if the media knows the lengths that people over 50 have to go through to even get a CV looked at, let alone an interview, training or promotion prospects.
Many people will look at the headline and form an opinion without ever reading the content.
Continue reading
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Tagged cuts, CVs, employment, interviews, Londoners, media, older, Older people, over-50s, redundancy, stereotyping, unemployment
A couple of us attended a meeting the other day in which one of the presentations promoted a pilot scheme to give people access to their GP records online. It sounded great… until we started to think through the potential for abuse. Our questions about security were acknowledged as valid, especially in light of recent failures in the massive NHS IT system developments. But there had clearly been little thought about issues closer to home.
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Tagged carers, dementia, GP, hackers, health, inequality, nhs, older, Older people, privacy, records
